Free Travel Time!

I got back from free travel on Wednesday! I apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera died pretty early on and the places we stayed didn't have power outlets to charge. The pictures from Green Turtle are stolen from Krista's camera. :) If I have time later, I will try to gather more pictures from other people and add them.

Enjoy reading about my vacation!

Nov. 18

This morning, Shannon, Paola, Caitlin, Josh, and I began our free time. So, I had to pack my bags for 10 days of vacation. My only bag that is not a huge suitcase is a bulky duffle bag the size of my body. Using public transportation in Ghana with a bag of that size is not easy, but I made it work. We did a lot of traveling today. We took a tro-tro to a place called La Paz, which is about a half an hour away from campus. From there, we had to walk to find a tro-tro to Keneshi Station. Keneshi Station is incredibly busy. We had to make our way through the masses (I’m carrying my duffle bag in my arms) to find a Ford Fast Car. These are basically just bigger tro-tros that are more expensive because they have one destination and they don’t stop until the get there. Our fast car took us to Cape Coast. From there we had to bargain with a taxi driver to get to Kakum National Park for a decent price.

When we arrived at the park, we had to wait for our guide, Ebenezer. After a while he showed up and made dinner for us. He then informed us that the tree house was a 25-minute hike into the jungle. At this point, I was looking at my duffle and wondering how on earth I was going to carry it through the jungle. I tried to wear it like a backpack for a bit, which looked completely ridiculous, but it worked until I wanted to fall over backwards. Ebenezer ended up carrying it for me. Good thing he did because the hike to the tree house was actually kind of hard.

Ebenezer realized as we got to the tree house that he forgot the keys to the place. So, he had to go back and left us alone in the jungle. It was about 5:00pm at this point, so the sun was beginning to set. It took our guide about an hour to return. The tree house is a large room on stilts complete with foam cots to sleep on.  Some mice had eaten a few of the cots. There is no water, no lights, and a hole with walls around it for a toilet. It was an experience to sleep there, to say the least.

We went on a hike in the jungle at 8:30pm. I was scared out of my mind. It was totally dark except for a few headlamps that we had. Ebenezer was armed with a rusty machete. I’m sure if anything attacked us, we would’ve been doomed. Luckily, the only wildlife we found was a cicada and a tarantula. Other than that, we just heard some animal noises and had a brief moment of panic with some fire ants.

Nov. 19
I slept in my clothes because I didn’t want to be eaten alive by bugs. I slept fairly well considering the circumstances, but jungle animals are loud—especially monkeys.

The group with Eben

We got up at 6am, packed up and hiked back to civilization as fast as we could. Unfortunately, the taxi driver that the park normally has for park guests decided to drive to Cape Coast, so we had to sit around and wait for a tro-tro to drive by. After a half an hour or so, we got one and we headed back to Cape Coast. We made a stop at the Global Mamas volunteer house to shower and eat breakfast before heading to our destination for the day. We ate cereal. I loved every bite.

After breakfast, we got a taxi to Stumble Inn. Usually, you agree on a price with the driver before you get into the car. We did that, but he tried to raise the price on the way because “the roads were bad”. Well, I was just so fed up with taxi drivers at this point that I just told him that he should have thought about that before we left. We gave him the money when we got to Stumble Inn and got out of the car.

Stumble Inn is beautiful. It’s right on the ocean. There are hammocks, beach chairs, a place where you can get food and drinks, a volleyball court, and a ping-pong table. We’re staying in the bunkrooms; so all five of us are sleeping in one place. It’s a huge step up from the tree house. We walked on the beach, swam, slept, and read all afternoon. We had pasta salad for lunch and I ordered pancakes with fruit for dinner. It’s been a great day here. Tomorrow we make the long journey to Cape Three Points. We’re staying a place called Escape Three Points (See what they did there?)

Nov. 20-24

On Tuesday morning we woke up and packed up to be ready for the taxi that was scheduled to pick us up at 7am. To our surprise, he was actually there at 7am. That never happens. We then had a series of tro-tro rides that took us to Cape Three Points. Our final tro-tro ride was on the worst rode I’ve ever been on by far. I got to sit in the front seat and I honestly felt like I was on a weird safari ride at Disney World. We were cruising over huge bumps, into potholes, and through deep puddles of water. I was actually getting wet because there were holes in the floor of the car.

We were dropped off at the end of the Escape Three Points driveways. I didn’t really know what to expect. A Rastafarian greeted us and assured us that we would have a relaxing time. The driveway ended. The natural surroundings were basically left alone aside from a few bungalows and a bar/sitting area. I felt like I had stepped onto the set of Gilligan’s Island. Other people felt like we could be on Survivor. Our sleeping area was called The Hive. It was a bunkhouse that had about 12 beds in it. A urinal sat just behind our bunkhouse along with an outdoor shower area. (Complete with a bamboo fence for privacy and a large trash can to hold the water) Further away were self-composting toilets. If you hadn’t guessed already, Escape Three Points is an eco-lodge. They take it pretty seriously.

The beach was beautiful. We had the place completely to ourselves. I loved it! I would get up in the morning, eat breakfast, put my suit on and then walk straight to the beach and stay there all day. Sometimes I would take a nap or something, but most of my time was spent reading on the beach.

The owner of the place was incredible. His name was Akwesi. He is a Ghanaian/Canadian who is married to a French woman. He was always around and super friendly. We decided that he would make a really cool uncle. There was also JB. He is a French guy that is living at Escape, helping build new bungalows and improving the menu for the kitchen. So he gets to do that during the day, and surf at night. Not a bad job. They made our time at Escape a lot of fun. It was really nice to get to know some new people.

On Thanksgiving, JB wanted to make sure that we had a nice meal. He arranged to have people catch lobster for us! I spent my Thanksgiving relaxing on a beach and later I feasted on freshly caught lobster and mashed potatoes. Not too bad, eh? I missed my family, but the group I was with made for a pretty good substitute.

On Saturday, Jeff organized an actual Survivor competition. He was the “host” and the rest of us were split up into tribes that competed against each other. The prize was $8.00 and the ability to switch seats with whomever you choose on the plane ride back to the States.

Our first challenge was an obstacle course. The next was a game where we had to see who could get a ball into a trashcan three times the fastest. We also did a crazy game of scrabble, a challenge in which we had to balance on a chair, and a rock-tower building challenge.
After each challenge, we were given some time to make alliances. Then, we had actual tribal councils where we voted people out. It was so much fun. It made the day go by a lot faster.

We left Escape on Sunday morning. Akwesi drove us in his truck. We all piled into the bed and rode standing up on the crazy, bumpy road all way to Old Town. We had to walk through Old Town, over a bridge into New Town and then walk about a mile down the beach to get to the Green Turtle Lodge.

Nov. 25-28

Our bunkhouse

The Green Turtle Lodge is a less intense eco-lodge. It is completely solar powered and has self-composting toilets. It did have showers with showerheads, which was great.

The days we spent there were devoted solely to the beach and the waves. I finished my book on the beach. I read J.K. Rowling’s new book, The Casual Vacancy. It’s interesting—nothing like Harry Potter. ;) I would recommend it. There was a boogie board available that we used quite a bit as well.

I think I am the most tan I’ve ever been in my life. That’s not saying a whole lot—I don’t tan super easily. I just hope it stays until I get home so I can be tanner than my friends for the first time ever.

The food was really good. The French toast was incredible. I usually ate a cheese and tomato Panini for lunch and dinner was different all three nights. After dinner, we usually spent time chatting with each other or with the manager of the place. He was English, which was cool.

We traveled back to campus on Wednesday. It took about seven hours total. Traveling in Ghana using the public transportation is just a hassle and it’s not that fun, especially when you have a really long trip to make. Campus was a welcomed site after traveling all day in hot, sweaty tro-tros.

:)

I spent Wednesday afternoon catching up on Facebook and emails. It was kind of nice to be out of touch with reality for a while. This vacation time has been perfect. Who wouldn’t love sitting on a sunny beach in Ghana while everyone back home is freezing in the snow?

This weekend, we head to Akropong for our final retreat. I’m glad we’re going back there because that has become one of my favorite places. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that they always have running water and good food, but the community is really nice, too.

On Sunday, we have our farewell dinner. We have invited all of our professors, internship point-persons, and friends we’ve made. At this dinner, we will be performing one of the dances we learned. Roland even got us matching shirts made for the occasion. The dinner is also an opportunity to thank all of the people that have contributed to our time here in a major way. It should be nice.